The national results from this year's delayed Sats tests for primary schools in England are set to be published.

The results for 11-year-olds are being issued despite about 460 schools still being without a complete set of marks, a month after the missed deadline.

There are eight schools which do not have any results at all for the tests taken in English, maths or science.

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The Department for Children, Schools and Families has said there is no evidence of problems with marking quality to require a delay in publication - and so is going ahead with the scheduled release of the overall national results.

Missing papers

The results will show the proportion of pupils who have achieved the expected Level 4.

There have been warnings that a change in the marking practice to stop re-checking borderline cases, where someone is just below getting a grade, is likely to lower the results.

But the results are being overshadowed by the ongoing problems with marking this year's Sats, which is being investigated by an independent inquiry.

Head teachers have opposed the provisional publication of results, arguing that there remain too many uncertainties about the extent of problems - either in terms of returning papers and the quality of marking.

Heads have warned that as well as missing results there are other unresolved problems such as pupils wrongly marked as absent.

The latest figures for completed marking show that 98.8% of results for English, 99.2% for maths and 99.3% for science have been returned.

In terms of schools, the Qualification and Curriculum Authority says there are now 2.8% of primary schools which are missing results in one subject, 0.1% of which are missing in two subjects and eight schools without any results.

A survey from the think tank Civitas, published to coincide with the test results, claims that the pressure to get pupils through Sats tests distorts their use as objective ways of measuring ability.

It says that many teachers believe that the results inflate pupils' ability.

The claims were rejected by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

"Standards in our schools are rising, and we do not accept that this is the result of teaching to the test. Results have improved significantly since 1997 for both 11- and 14-year-olds and those results are in turn reflected in higher GCSE results," said a spokesman.

Is your child still waiting for their Sats results? Should the government publish the national results? Send us your comments using the form below.

(BBC)

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